District lockdown

COVINGTON, Ohio — The Indians knew Ava Astorino and Addie Wallen like to fire away from beyond the arc.

With that knowledge, Cameron Muhlenkamp made sure to lock down Astorino the entire night while Kennedy Muhlenkamp and Karlie Niekamp held down Wallen.

On the other end of the floor, Bridget Homan found a way to drop three of her own triples en route to a career night and the victory.

The fourth-seeded Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team held the No. 2 seed West Liberty-Salem Tigers to just 19.2% from 3-point range to pull out a 40-31 OHSAA Division VI Southwest 2 District semifinal victory on Tuesday night at Covington.

The victory earns the Tribe (12-12) its first trip to the district finals, which will be held Saturday at 5:30 p.m. against third-seeded Arcanum at Monroe, since it fell to Minster in 2018.

“It feels great,” said FRHS coach Tyler Deitsch, noting his team’s growth after a slow start that included losing four of the first five games. “It’s one step at a time and now we’re at that goal step. It’s awesome the work that these girls have put in. …

“They were definitely the higher seed, but we felt we had the athletes and players to be able to go out and handle ourselves. … They had three really good guards that gave us some trouble. We were really expecting (Astorino) to do a lot against us and that’s why Cameron was on her and shut her down most of the night which was awesome.”

The junior leads West-Liberty Salem (16-8) with 12.2 points per game.

Astorino does a majority of her damage from behind the arc, but Cameron Muhlenkamp stayed home on the shooter to try to prevent her from getting high-quality looks. As a result, the Tiger shot just 1-of-10 from beyond the arc and 2-of-13 (15.4%).

Astorino’s lone triple came in the third quarter, when the Indian sophomore got switched off.

“We knew that her go-to move was a stepback three, so I knew that if I was up on her the whole night and didn’t give her any space, she wouldn’t be able to hit it,” Cameron Muhlenkamp said. “I had my hand in her face the whole time, so she didn’t have much room to get it off. … It felt really good to lock her up.”

Astorino’s backcourt mate, Wallen, didn’t do much better. While the freshman, who averages 11.5 points per game, finished with a team-high 13 points, she shot 4-of-19 (21.1%) from the field with Kennedy Muhlenkamp and Niekamp taking turns guarding her.

As a team, WLSHS shot 5-of-26 from deep.

While the Tigers struggled from deep, Fort Recovery got a few key threes in the second and third quarters.

Kennedy Muhlenkamp put the first 3-pointer home after the ball was passed to Niekamp at the free-throw line and then kicked out to the senior at the 5:58 mark. Cameron Muhlenkamp and Homan hit triples on back-to-back possessions that gave FRHS a 13-11 advantage and forced the Tigers out of their 2-3 zone that was giving Niekamp and Kennedy Muhlenkamp problems getting to the rim.

    FRHS senior Karlie Niekamp takes contact from West Liberty-Salem’s Ava Asorino during Tuesday’s 40-31 playoff win at Covington. Niekamp scored 15 points as the Indians advanced to their first district finals in 14 years. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

Homan found the bottom of the net from deep two more times early in the third quarter to put the Indians up 26-16 and force a West Liberty-Salem timeout.

The FRHS sophomore also scored on a pair of drives late in the period en route to a career-high 17 points that led all scorers. She shot 7-for-12 (58.3%) from the field to bounce back from a rough game against Triad in the sectional final, in which she had three points on 1-for-9 shooting (11.1%).

“It was exciting,” Homan said. “When I hit that first three I just thought, ‘Let’s go now.’ And then I hit two more and that just brought my confidence up. … Those threes were super big and it forced them to call a timeout after.”

With the Tigers forced to abandon their zone for the fourth quarter, Niekamp was able to take Fort Recovery across the finish line. The senior scored all six of the Indians’ points with a three-point play on a coast-to-coast bucket and then three more free throws.

“Her leadership and ability and mindset to take control of the game (is important),” Dietsch said. “She had just kind of grown into her role here down the stretch and taken advantage of it.”

The Tribe will take on Arcanum (15-9) for the chance at its first regional appearance since the 2011 run to the state finals. Fort Recovery lost to the Trojans 34-33 on Nov. 23 after being up eight points heading into the fourth quarter. 

Deitsch is confident in his team’s growth since the early season matchup and is looking forward to the rematch.

“It’s just the growth we’ve had throughout the year and being able to stay more consistent offensively and defensively,” Deitsch said of what could be the key to beating the Trojans. “We had a fourth quarter where we didn’t score and kind of melted at the end and handed them the game back. That’s not the team we’re playing like anymore.”